Pharmacist In Tassie’s Geeveston Stays Back To Man The Shop Despite Fire Risk

Contributor: PEDESTRIAN.TV

It’s hard to be particularly pessimistic about humans in general when you see how they act in times of emergency. In the lead up to, during, and in the aftermath of the 2011 Brisbane floods I experienced more kindness, generosity, and community from strangers than I ever anticipated. Neighbours I had never spoken to in my life were all too happy to help me scrape the mud out of my laundry. I saw drivers self-organise to take turns calmly waving each other through major intersections with non-functioning traffic lights. I stood in line with people who patiently waited 45 minutes to get through the checkouts at Woollies, covered in mud, without a single complaint.

Sure, any other week, some of those people would have lost their mind if they had to wait even four minutes, but in times of trouble, we really become our best selves. Take Ian Magill, owner and pharmacist at Geeveston Pharmacy, who is keeping the pharmacy going despite strong recommendations from the Tasmania Fire Service that the area should be evacuated.

Geeveston is located in Tassie’s south on the western side of the Huon River, where emergency warnings have been declared from ongoing fires. Firefighters in the state are currently battling almost 1500km of fire fronts.

In a post on Facebook, Magill said that he had been sleeping on a couch out the back of the pharmacy on the past week, and would be open again today for any urgent medical needs.


Source: Facebook.

Speaking to Triple M, Magill said that he was “getting there, taking each day as it comes” and “just here, doing doing what [he does]“. He described his situation as “disaster in comfort“, specifying that he was thankful to have access to Netflix.

He said that one of his main concerns is people who have prescriptions on file with the pharmacy but were unable to access the pharmacy anymore after evacuating, but was working with other pharmacies to facilitate getting medication organised for those people.

What a legend.

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